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I'll get you, my pretty — And Your Little Dog, Too! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Let all Oz be agreed / I'm wicked through and through
Since I can not succeed / Fiyero, saving you
I promise no good deed / Will I attempt to do again / Ever again"
Elphaba, Wicked

Welcome to the dark side of the classic witch, step lightly or you may get eaten.

The wicked witch archetype is a classic staple of Fairy Tales everywhere. It used to be that just about every witch was wicked, and if a non-evil female magic user appeared in folklore, she'd be referred to with a term like "sorceress" or "fairy godmother" instead, but in modern times that's not always the case. A lot of the trappings of a wicked witch are shared by her good or neutral counterpart the Witch Classic, such as Broomstick riding and wearing pointy hats. Still there are some red flags to watch out for to decide if the witch you're dealing with is good or may in fact be wicked.

It's likely that every witch in existence will be this trope in a setting where Magic Is Evil. There might also be some overlap with the Wicked Stepmother and the Evil Matriarch; however, royalty tends to be beautiful. In settings tending more towards Magic Realism than typical fantasy worlds, their magical powers will be downplayed, but their prophecies will have a bad habit of coming horribly true, especially if they get insulted or snubbed.

It's also worth noting that many aspects of the wicked witch (an old woman in mourning black, living alone, loves children, has a cat) are perfectly ordinary things you might expect from a widowed older woman, twisted to make them sound evil. The origins of the wicked witch herself are most likely a way to vilify women that certain people thought were leading immoral lives, or wanted to take advantage of.

Compare Evil Sorceress of which this tends to be a more 'earthy' version.

Usually uses Black Magic. Subtrope of Witch Classic. Sister tropes include Cute Witch, Hot Witch, and Widow Witch.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Clow Reed's Psycho Ex-Girlfriend in the dubbed version of Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie. In the original, she was merely a water-diviner whose business was disrupted by Clow Reed, and who was sealed up voluntarily. She was also not actually his girlfriend, though she did have feelings for him that may or may not have been reciprocated. note  In the dub, she was formerly Clow Reed's student, and eventually his long-term girlfriend, until she decided she wanted more power and headed on over to The Dark Side, and Clow Reed broke up with her and sealed her away because she was dangerous.
  • Nao Sadatsuka of Food Wars! isn't an actual witch, but she likes to dress and act the part, given that she specializes in boiled dishes that she prepares on a stirring cauldron, which many people compare to witchcraft. She's even given the moniker "Boiling Witch".
  • GoLion, known as Voltron in America has Honerva/Haggar, an alien witch complete with cat.
  • Little Witch Academia:
    • Sucy Manbavaran is a goth-looking girl, pale skinned with bags under her eyes, specializes in potions and poisons, and is named after a Philippine trickster witch archetype. A rare "good guy" example.
    • Two of the teachers at the school fit this look, but are more stern that truly evil. Professor Anne Finnelan has the craggy looks (resembling the Wicked Witch of the West without the green skin) and is the strictest teacher at the school, while Professor Lukic is more elderly in appearance with a hag-like appearance and a spine-chilling cackle, who delights in scaring the wits out of her students.
  • True Witch Fabia Crozelg of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, who dresses in a black witch outfit, flies around on a broom called Hell Gazer, commands several devil familiars, and specializes in a wide variety of Curses. When Church Knight Sister Chantez sees her, she mentions that she's practically her complete opposite professionally. She's also the villain of the Library arc, spying on the Vivid cast and later capturing them one by one.
  • While Punie Tanaka of Magical Witch Punie-chan definitely looks the part of a Cute Witch, her true nature is more along these lines.
  • The Witches from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are very, very far from the classic image of the "Witch", being much closer to Eldritch Abominations or the youma of classic mahou shoujo shows than anything else. Also, apart from witches that grew from former familiars after their parent witch was killed, every single witch used to be a Magical Girl.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena intentionally subverts the Wicked Witch archetype with Anthy, who is a witch who acts like a princess. She is victimized by her brother Akio, a prince who acts like a witch, and she eventually falls in love with Utena, a princess who acts like a prince.
  • Sailor Moon had Beryl, Zoisite, Emerald, Nehellenia, Badiane, Kaguya... just to name a few.
    • The Witches 5.
      • Most of those are undeniably wicked, but they're also Hot Witches.
  • Smile Pretty Cure! has Majorina, one of the enemy commanders. Crooked nose, occasional cackling, rides on a broom, casts hexes (albeit from her invention, uses a ball to spy on others (though she doesn't use it too much, and is old and ugly (until she shouts "Majorina time!" and turns into her Hot Witch form).
  • Soul Eater portrays witches in general as Always Chaotic Evil, but Medusa and Arachne in particular are the Big Bads of various points of the story.
    • Averted with Angela, a cute little girl witch.
  • Yubaba from Spirited Away, but not her sister, who just looks like one.
    • Slightly applies to Yubaba's sister, as despite her kind nature she's not above using violence to get what she wants. This is exemplified by her sending paper familiars after Haku and cutting him up badly with them for stealing something from her.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO! has Shibiretta, one of the employees of Eternal.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Mystical Sands is a witch that the heroes have to defeat to progress. She controls sand and laughs constantly as the heroes fight her sand worm minions.

    Arts 
  • Witches' Sabbath (1798): The elderly, impoverished women are a coven of witches congregating on their own Sabbath. It's heavily downplayed, though, since the only stereotypical traits they display are that they have Satan as their god and that they are ugly.

    Ballads 

    Comic Books 
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Magica De Spell in the comic strips.
  • Douwe Dabbert: Wredulia and the Heksen van Eergisteren.
  • The Old Witch from EC Comics.
  • Frau Totenkinder in Fables is any unnamed Wicked Witch in fairy tales. She's been shown specifically to have been the Wicked Witch in "Rapunzel", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Frog Prince", and "Hansel and Gretel", but she got better after the oven incident. (This is explained in the 1001 Nights of Snowfall prequel.)
    • Totenkinder is actually a bit of a subversion because she's not actually evil, just self-servingly neutral, and only looks the way she does by choice.
  • Jommeke: Haakneus, Pierehaar and Steketand, who also appear in creator Jef Nys' other series, Langteen & Schommelbuik.
  • Judge Dredd: Mega-City One has been attacked by the Sisters of Death several times, who combine the wicked witch archetype with Eldritch Abomination. As allies of the Dark Judges (and the ones responsible for turning them into living dead), they're undead spirits who consider life itself a crime and whose powers are so vast that they took over most of the Judge force and blacked out the sun.
  • Most of the stories that Little Lulu tells to Alvin feature an evil witch named Witch Hazel (No, not that Witch Hazel), and her niece (also a witch) named Little Itch.
  • The polar opposite of Prairie Witch may be Mother Hubbard, also from was The Golden Age of Comic Books, specifically ''Scoop Comics’’ in 1941. She had all the trappings of the Trope, being an old hag with a witch’s hat who flew on a broomstick and used cauldrons and crystal balls to use dark magic. However, she was on the good guy’s side, fighting evil gnomes and trolls, and, like most heroes of the time, battling Those Wacky Nazis.
  • Mombi—the Wicked witch of the North from The Marvelous Land of Oz—is The Starscream to Big Bad Ruggedo the Nome King in Oz (Caliber).
  • Hilda Spellman from Sabrina the Teenage Witch certainly counts as one with her pointy hat, long nose, warts, crooked teeth, flying broomstick and propensity to put hexes and curses on anyone she sees fit to. Her sister, Zelda, however, is far more the fairy godmother type, and their niece, Sabrina, is the quintessential Cute Witch.
    • The above was true in stories before the late 1990s; with the success of the sitcom, Archie averted this by adapting some of the sitcom's elements into the comics. Thus, they gave Hilda and Zelda makeovers that made them look and act more like typical modern women.
  • Another partial monkeywrench is the Prairie Witch, a forties-era villain created by James Robinson in Starman. She's leggy and sexy and doesn't actually practice magic, but she's got the green skin, hat, and flying broom.
  • Suske en Wiske: An Tanneke in De Zeven Snaren (but she becomes a good character in the end), Alwina in De Schat van Beersel, Kovertol in De Tuf-Tuf-Club, De Zwarte Madam in De Zwarte Madam, Ham Leyn Wecks in De Mysterieuze Mijn, Jeanne Panne in Jeanne Panne.
  • Casper's friend Wendy The Good Little Witch is a Cute Witch, but she has three very wicked aunts.
  • Mordred from DC's old anthology horror series, The Witching Hour, fits the bill. To a lesser extent so does her daughter, Mildred, but not her granddaughter, Cynthia, who is more of a Hot Witch. These three were later adapted into aspects of the Furies in The Sandman (1989) by Neil Gaiman.
  • Wonder Woman: Circe is a powerful human hating Solitary Sorceress who routinely turns people into animals and monsters. She's also a shapeshifter who usually looks like a Hot Witch, but she alters her appearance constantly.

    Comic Strips 
  • Angus Og: Granny McBrochan has all the attributes of the classic wicked witch; living in a remote cottage, magical cats, purveyor of curses and potions, and a cauldron. In practice she is a mostly benign feature in the lives of most Drambegians. Her wrath is mostly confined to Angus, and goodness knows but he deserves it at times.
  • Broom Hilda
  • The Far Side often features these. One memorable strip has a couple with very cross expressions on their faces berating the witch they hired to babysit for eating both of their kids.
  • Nero: Appear in albums like Hela De Heks and De Groene Patreel.
  • Paulus de Boskabouter: Eucalypta the witch, Paulus' archnemesis.
  • Popeye: The Sea Hag and her sister are classic but unique examples, drawn in that inimitable Segar style.

    Fairy Tales 
  • Baba Yaga is the Russian folklore's most famous and most feared witch. She flies around using a giant mortar and pestle, is known for kidnapping and eating small children, and lives in a forest hut, which stands on chicken legs. In some tales, though, she is helpful to people who treat her respectfully and do not put their noses into her business.
  • In "Brother and Sister" the Wicked Stepmother not only drives off the title characters with her cruelty, but, being a witch, tries to enchant them into animal forms (and succeeds with Brother). She also murders Sister after her marriage and replace her with her own daughter.
  • A witch kidnaps "Buttercup" in order to eat him.
  • In "The Daughter of Buk Ettemsuch", a witch breaks into the heroine's house and eats her older sisters (though the incident was the sisters' fault for leaving the door open).
  • In "The Death of Koschei the Deathless", Baba Yaga tells Prince Ivan she will give him one horse if he takes care of her herd for three days; but she will behead him if he loses any of them.
  • In "Esben and the Witch", when Esben and his brothers stay at the witch's, she tries to murder them in their sleep. Fortunately, Esben shifted around the nightcaps so she murdered her own daughters instead; then, when they go to the king, he proceeds to rob her of her treasures one by one.
  • In "The Frog Prince", it is mentioned that the Prince got turned into a frog by a Wicked Witch.
  • The eponymous characters in "Hansel and Gretel", end up lost in the woods, and find their way to a house (made of cake and bread), which is owned by a wicked witch, who's also a cannibal.
  • In "Jorinde and Joringel", a witch who disguises herself as an owl and or a cat turns Jorinde into a nightingale, and Joringel has to go save her.
  • In "Kate Crackernuts", the envious Wicked Stepmother has a Wicked Witch turn her stepdaughter's head into a sheep's head.
  • In "The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh", the stepmother, out of jealousy at her beauty, turns her stepdaughter into a dragon; she is disenchanted by her brother.
  • In "The Nine Pea-hens and the Golden Apples", a witch prevents the prince and his love from meeting a second time.
  • In "The Old Witch", the two girls go into service for the old witch; one, by being friendly to things she meets on the way, succeeds in tricking her out of gold, but the other fails.
  • In The One-Handed Girl, the heroine's brother accuses her of this.
    "By the kindness of your heart have you been deceived, O king," said he. "Your son has married a girl who has lost a hand. Do you know why she had lost it? She was a witch, and has wedded three husbands, and each husband she has put to death with her arts. Then the people of the town cut off her hand, and turned her into the forest. And what I say is true, for her town is my town also."
  • In "Prince Ivan, the Witch Baby, and the Little Sister of the Sun", the main character's little sister is a size-shifting, swift-footed, iron-toothed witch who eats their parents up and tries to eat him, too.
  • In " Prunella", Prunella is a Wicked Witch's prisoner, because she had taken fruit from the witch's tree, and she assigns Impossible Tasks; only with the help of the witch's son does she survive.
  • In "Puddocky", when the girl steals parsley from the witch, the witch has her come work for her, and eat all the parsley she likes, but when young men start to quarrel because of her beauty, she turns the girl into a toad.
  • "Rapunzel" is held captive by a witch, who demanded her in return for her father's life, because he had stolen rampion from her for his pregnant wife. As are Petrosinella and The Fair Angiola, whose mothers had robbed the witch and had to pay the same price.
  • In "The Two Brothers", collected by The Brothers Grimm, and "The Three Princes and Their Beasts", collected by Andrew Lang, one of the brothers gets lost in the woods and encounters a wicked witch who turns people to stone.
  • "Vasilissa the Beautiful" offers one of the rare instances where the witch Baba Yaga helps the main character, presumably because Vasilissa was respectful to her and refused to make too many questions.
  • In "The White Dove", a Wicked Witch gets two brothers to promise her their younger brother for their safety; then she kidnaps the younger brother and tries to destroy him with Impossible Tasks.
  • Allegedly Annie Palmer, The White Witch of Rose Hall.
  • In "The Witch", the Wicked Stepmother intentionally sends her children to a Wicked Witch, who tries to set them Impossible Tasks; through the advice of their grandmother and kindness to the objects about her house, they escape.
  • "The Witch In The Stone Boat" kidnapped a princess, taking her form and place, and sending her to her brother as a bride, but the princess's son knew she was not his mother, and the true princess came back three times, and the third time, the prince managed to free her.
  • In Andrew Lang's "The Wonderful Birch", a Wicked Witch turns the heroine's mother into a sheep and uses shapeshifting to take her place; she has the sheep killed and feeds it to the woman's husband, although the daughter does not eat and manages to bury the bones. Then she does everything in Cinderella and then, after the wedding, enchants her stepdaughter into the form of a reindeer after the wedding and puts her own daughter in her place.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animated 
  • Gothel from Barbie as Rapunzel is this, though she's not unattractive. She has magical abilities, lives in a manor in the middle of the woods, and has done plenty of evil deeds like kidnapping Rapunzel to spite Rapunzel's father and Gothel's unrequited love, King Wilhelm, locking Rapunzel in a tower, and attempting to murder the prince and his younger siblings.
  • The Other Mother/The Beldam from Coraline spies on and lures unhappy children through a mysterious portal door into an alternate dimension where all of their dreams and fantasies come true. Of course, it's all a devious trap where she sews buttons over their eyes and devours them.
  • Disney Animated Canon
    • In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Queen Grimhilde transforms herself into a very impressive Hag of a witch, including all the classic physical features, in order to pull one over on Snow White. Interestingly she was originally a Vain Sorceress who put on the whole 'hook-nosed woman' look as a disguise. In fact, she's so effective as a Witch that she is resurrected to grand effect in the Disney comic books.
    • The musical work of Fantasia has Night on Bald Mountain as its final segment. Among the many, many damned souls that fly at their master Chernobog's beckoning one can easily the ghosts of his devotees, there are witches that use their ghostly brooms in a perpetuation of what they did in life.
    • Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty is technically an evil fairy, but still invokes the look and feel. She's referred to as a "wicked witch" by Merriweather.
    • Mad Madam Mim appeared as Merlin's adversary in The Sword in the Stone, and had all the generic traits of a Wicked Witch. Interestingly her subsequent appearances in the various Disney comics turned her into Chaotic Neutral verging on Chaotic Good.
    • Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989)—also a member of a fairy race, but is considered a wicked witch to merfolk, as evidenced by Sebastian and Scuttle both referring to her as "the sea witch".
    • Mother Gothel from Tangled might count—she's plenty wicked, but she doesn't exhibit magical powers of her own beyond her knowledge of magical incantations.
  • Hydia and her two daughters Reeka and Draggle from My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), and proud of it, although Reeka and Draggle are rather incompetent at it. In fact, every female member of their family is this trope with a few being mentioned, to the point it's basically the family business.
  • The town in ParaNorman once executed a supposed witch in its past, and is now filled with cheesy attractions and shops depicting her as this, which Salma finds historically inaccurate. And she's right. The witch was really just a little girl that could speak to ghosts.
  • Glitch the witch from The Real Story Of Humpty Dumpty. An evil witch who wants to poison princess Allegra and causes Humpty to fall from the wall.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The main antagonists of Bloodlands are a coven of undead witches terrorizing a family.
  • Clash of the Titans (1981) and Clash of the Titans (2010) both feature the Stygian Witches. They are based on the Graeae from Greek mythology — and the name actually translates as 'old women', 'grey ones', 'grey witches' etc. They're a trio of elderly women who share one eye and one tooth between them. Perseus taking their eye convinces them to reveal some useful exposition. They appear to be far more bloodthirsty in the 2010 remake, as they're implied to be cannibals.
  • Deadtime Stories: In "Peter and the Witches", Peter is a slave working for a pair of wicked witch sisters who are seeking to resurrect their third sister via Human Sacrifice.
  • Mrs. Sylvia Ganush from Drag Me to Hell. She is a Roma who places curses on those who wronged her.
  • Voodoo fortuneteller Elzora from Eve's Bayou. The movie taking place in relatively recent times, she's aware of the imagery and seems to enjoy playing it up as part of her fortuneteller act, and gets cheap laughs from scaring children.
  • Loads of these are present and seen plaguing the fictional village of Augsburg in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.
  • Three wicked witches are the antagonists of Hocus Pocus. Of the trio, Winnie is the only one that really fits the Wicked Witch stereotype. Her sister Mary is more of a grown up Cute Witch and the third sister Sarah is an outright Hot Witch.
  • In The Last Witch Hunter, while most witches are of Hot variety, the Witch Queen looks like something humanoid grew from a tree, has Voice of the Legion and laughs in a rather unamusing manner.
  • Nightbooks: Natacha, a witch with no qualms in enslaving children, who also kills people who she doesn't find useful. And the original witch, who lured her into the apartment in the first place.
  • The prequel film Oz the Great and Powerful features three witches. One is evil all along, one turns evil and one remains good. The Wicked Witches both have natural monstrous forms but can use an enchantment to disguise themselves as beautiful. When Theodora becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, she loses her beauty and gains the iconic green skin. The Flying Broomstick thing turns out to be something she does to mock Oscar.
  • The Big Bad of Suspiria (1977) Helena Markos, the Witch of Sighs. She's very old, has wrinkled skin, cackles, and eats people.
  • The Theatre Bizarre: In "The Mother of Toads", concerns an American anthropologist and his girlfriend who fall victim to a witch known as The Mother of Toads.
  • In The VVitch, a Puritan family in colonial New England are (maybe) tormented by a witch in the woods. The first time we get a good look at her she seems to be a Hot Witch, but this is implied to be some kind of magical illusion, and she's not so pretty the next time we see her. Additionally, the Final Girl, Thomasin, becomes another witch at the end.
  • All but one in the film The Witches (1990). Anjelica Huston's portrayal of the Grand High Witch's true face is actually more horrifying than its book counterpart.

    Literature 
  • In The Adventures of Strong Vanya, Baba Yaga is an old, evil witch who steals horses and kills whoever she finds wandering around her swamp.
  • In The Arts of Dark and Light, Idumeta Venfica, who becomes Severa's first teacher in witchcraft, has most of the traits of one, being an old, ugly crone living outside the town proper and devoting herself to Black Magic.
  • Karen Brewer from The Baby-Sitters Club believes that the next door neighbor Mrs. Porter is one, and that her real name is Morbidda Destiny. The sitters would waver on whether or not they really believed this (and one of the Little Sister books revealed that even Mrs. Porter's granddaughter could not be sure whether it was true). Kristy eventually reasoned that Mrs. Porter could not be a real witch because when the Brewers' cat left a dead mouse on her doorstep she brought it over to demand that they dispose of it, rather than keeping to use in her potions.
  • In C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, the White Witch of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the Lady of the Green Kirtle of The Silver Chair both fall into the poisonously-beautiful subtype of witches and add attempted seduction (subtextual, these being children's books) to their magic as a means of seeking power.
  • The Courtship of Princess Leia: Gethzerion is quite ugly due to facial deformities caused by her use of the Dark Side and lives in isolation with her fellow wicked witches at the Imperial prison on Dathomir, which they took over. She and they use their powers for evil, chiefly by hurting people (Gethzerion tortures Han with Force telekinesis near the end).
  • Stephen King's The Dark Tower offers us the malicious Rhea, the Witch of Coos, in Wizard and Glass. She is old and lives alone with a cat.
  • In Deathless, Baba Yaga of Russian folklore shows up, or at least an odd version of her - she drives around in a limousine with chicken-legs, and insists on being referred to as Chairman Yaga, but she has the mane of horrid hair, a tendency to eat people, warts, a nasty cackle, and outranks every other magician in the world. From the same novel we also have the beautiful Madame Lebedeva who casually mentions cursing and killing people with her magic, although she's more amoral and inhuman than wicked.
  • Discworld witches are a monkeywrench, they deliberately look the part but are generally benevolent, acting as doctor, judge, defence against supernatural threats and generally keeping the community in order. However, that doesn't always mean they're nice.
    • In fact, Granny Weatherwax is rather disappointed that she has perfect teeth and an unblemished, rosy complexion. However, she refuses to admit that she ever cackles.
    • We also get the occasion played straight (Black Allis, a frequently mentioned example of what happens when witches go bad) and inverted (Lilith 'Lily' Weatherwax, an evil fairy godmother, Granny's older sister, who deluded herself into thinking she was 'the Good One').
    • The unfortunate results of using the traits of old women to "identify" witches is also deconstructed from time to time, seen in Witches Abroad and especially in the Tiffany Aching novels. Tiffany is first inspired to become a witch after witnessing the ostracism of an innocent, lonely, slightly odd old woman just because she was suspected of being a witch (by a community which wasn't familiar with the more positive examples mentioned above).
    • In Wintersmith, Tiffany becomes an apprentice to Miss Treason, who cultivates this image more than most. When Tiffany asks why, she's told to take a good look and she realises that without that image, Miss Treason is just a blind, deaf, and extremely old woman.
    • The Bonus Material in The Illustrated Wee Free Men includes a "wicked witch" called Brenda Loveknot as part of the toad's backstory, who cursed Princess Sandy of Brokenrock to be stunned by a falling hamster on her 18th birthday. However, Loveknot insists she's not evil, just fulfilling a necessary narrative role, and the "curse" was placed by arrangement with the king on the understanding that it would inevitably lead to Sandy marrying a handsome prince.
  • Although most witches in the Dorrie the Little Witch books are good, some are this trope, and end up the antagonists of some books.
  • H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dreams in the Witch House" gave us Keziah Mason, servant of Nyarlathotep.
  • In The Dresden Files, Mother Winter is described in a way that precisely matches the classic wicked witch - she's an wizened, horrible old woman with sharp teeth, terrifying magical powers and a tendency to chop people up and cook them in her pot. Harry Dresden refers to her as "Granny Cleaver" because she throws knives at him when she first meets him. Mab, Queen of the Winter Court of Faerie, also, is described as being the person who gave all wicked witches, vain sorceresses and terrifying ogresses their lessons in being nasty.
  • The Sword of Shannara Trilogy: The utterly psychotic Witch Sisters, Morag and Mallenroh of The Elfstones of Shannara. Beautiful, cold, and utterly evil, they've turned the Wilderun into a disaster, and spent several thousand years warring with one another and kidnapping/murdering anyone who gets in between them. The Ilse Witch of The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara is a more sympathetic version who was, coincidentally, raised by Morag and Mallenroh's brother, The Morgawr.
  • Enchanted Forest Chronicles:
    • Averted by Morwen. She is a witch, and still practices magic, owns a dozen or so cats, and wears black robes, but is also very practical, sensible, friendly, and attractive in a motherly way.
    • Parodied with her colleague Archaniz, who looks and acts the part down to the poisonous garden... because she's the Chairwitch of the Deadly Nightshade Gardening Club. She also grows ordinary daisies in the garden and worries about witches getting a reputation for being too kind and helpful and thus getting swamped by people asking for assistance.
  • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld: Maelga is the sorceress Sybel's closest neighbor; one of the only people willing to live near the mysterious and frightening Eld Mountain. She's only a little bit wicked; she and Sybel end up good friends after Sybel receives the baby, Tam, and turns to Maelga for advice. Maelga steals a cow — refusing to let Sybel do it — so they can feed Tam, and leaves a jeweled broach in its place, making many peasants hopefully leave the barn door open after. She does dispense curses and potions to the villagers, though.
  • The Trope Codifier was E. T. A. Hoffmann's story The Golden Pot, which was quite popular in an English translation during the early 19th century. The very wicked witch in this tale is a wrinkly old woman with the missing teeth that make her pointed nose almost meet her pointed chin, wearing a tall black hat, has a spooky black cat that she talks to, lives in a small cottage full of taxidermied animals and such, and cooks up a potion in a cauldron as a "love" charm for the young woman who comes to see her.
  • Into the Heartless Wood: The Gwydden is a witch queen who seeks to wipe out all of humanity. She used to be a forest nymph before having her soul stolen by Elynion.
  • Terry Brooks seemed to have liked this trope, because he also made one of the chief antagonists of his Magic Kingdom of Landover series an evil, beautiful witch too. Nightshade is the only antagonist who shows up in every book of the series, and she has the most powerful magic in all of Landover after the land itself.
  • The Marvellous Land of Snergs: Mother Meldrum is a decrepit, evil witch who lives in the heart of a dark forest and earns her livelihood by selling curses (among other things).
  • Mrs Pouncer and her colleagues in The Midnight Folk, complete with familiar felines, flying broomsticks, tall pointy hats, wrinkled faces, hooky noses, etc. It turns out that the faces are cunningly-fashioned masks that come off with the hats when they return to their respectable daylight lives.
  • In James Herbert's Once, sultry practitioner of traditional remedies Nell Quick claims natural healing ability. Through diabolical ritual, she tries to acquire the land and wealth of sixteenth century mansion Castle Bracken, and to eliminate unwitting heir Thom Kindred.
  • In John Barnes's One for the Morning Glory, witches, with the rarest of exceptions, fully look the part.
  • In John Milton's Paradise Lost, the figure of Sin is compared to these:
    Nor uglier follow the Night-Hag, when call'd
    In secret, riding through the Air she comes
    Lur'd with the smell of infant blood, to dance
    With LAPLAND Witches, while the labouring Moon
    Eclipses at thir charms.
  • In Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, Mother Gerd claims to be merely summoning a sprite, but given that she recites the Lord's Prayer backwards, and warns Holger not to pray or cross himself, it's clearly a devil.
  • In John Moore's Fractured Fairy Tale, The Unhandsome Prince, Emily's mother wasn't really wicked, but she definitely had leanings in that direction, and certainly looked the part. And she did turn Prince Hal into a frog (although, to be fair, he was trying to steal something from her at the time).
  • In Seanan McGuire's Velveteen vs., Halloween's problems started with this. (They blame L. Frank Baum.)
  • Villains by Necessity: Valerie is a sorceress whose usual ambition is to kill or harm others, though she's begrudgingly willing to work alongside fellow villains to save the world (thus herself as well).
  • Les Voyageurs Sans Souci: Séraphine Alavolette de Plumauvent, queen of all birds, takes the form of a witch while travelling around the human world: she has a long hooky nose, wears black, owns a flying broomstick, and uses magic trinkets to lure and kidnap unwary children.
  • In Warren the 13th, Annaconda is described in her first appearance as a witch. It initially just seems like the author's way of describing how cruel she is, but then we learn that "witch" is absolutely literal. She and her sisters are genuine, black-magic-casting witches who crave power.
  • In E. D. Baker's The Wide-Awake Princess, several casting fell magic. One tries to trap Gwendolyn with a spinning wheel, which leaves Annie wondering how that works, since an evil fairy cast the curse.
  • Wise Child:
    • The Solitary Sorceress Juniper is widely rumored to be this and treated like one by the villagers because of her different way of living (she lives alone outside the village, uses her herbs for healing in a manner that seems magical, and does not attend church). She isn't one and is actually a doran, a person defined by living as one with nature, but it doesn't stop the local priest from exploiting the villagers' fears to turn them against her.
    • Maeve is a straighter example, as she seems to have powers of her own (she has numerous male admirers, is mysteriously wealthy with a large house and servants, is implied to have enchanted her husband somehow to make him choose her over Juniper, and she gives Wise Child a magic stone that has adverse effects on her), but they're never explicitly shown.
  • In The Witcher series women with talent for magic but no money for sorceress training tend to end up getting the reputation, if not always the personality of a Wicked Witch.
  • Roald Dahl's novel The Witches. Dahl stated that his witches are Always Female and always hate children. They dedicate their lives to killing children. He also gives some telltale signs to spot a witch.
    • They're bald. As they cover this up by wearing wigs 24/7, a woman scratching her head a lot is sure to be one.
    • They have cats' claws instead of fingernails. So they're always wearing gloves.
    • Their nostrils have pink rims, to help them smell out children. Which apparently smell of fresh dogs' droppings.
    • Their eyeballs flash different colours. You can apparently see fire and ice dancing there if you look hard enough.
    • They have no toes. Yet they squeeze their feet into pointed shoes anyway - which is excruciating.
    • Their saliva is blue, and they use it as pen ink.
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where the witches are actually named "Wicked Witch" (of the East and West).
    • Countless reviews and analyses of The Film of the Book have said that, pound-for-pound, The Wicked Witch of the West is overall the hands-down most evil character to have ever been portrayed in film. It's also the Trope Codifier for witches being green-skinned, being a literal Audience-Coloring Adaptation.
    • The sequel The Marvelous Land of Oz introduced Mombi, the mildly wicked witch who brought Jack Pumpkinhead to life with her Powder of Life. Later in the series, Mombi becomes a full-fledged Wicked Witch, the former Wicked Witch of the North.
    • Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked is a revisionist look at the characters and the land of Oz. The story centers on a green girl named Elphaba who grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Over the course of the book, Elphaba gradually acquires the stereotypical attributes of this trope (except the ugliness- while never pretty per se, she's repeatedly described as having strong features that could easily tip into the stereotype, including a hooked nose, but they come together strikingly on her).
  • In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Which takes on this form, with a pointed hat and a broom. While she's scary, she's a benevolent force, making her guise a pun rather than an indication of her nature.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Arabela has two, both living in the Fairy Tale Kingdom. One is the witch from Hansel and Gretel, and one acts as an assistant to the main villain.
  • Are You Afraid of the Dark?:
    • "The Tale of the Final Wish" ironically (it's based around Fairy Tale Motifs) doesn't feature one as the antagonist. But Jill's nightmare at the beginning has Mood Whiplash of a beautiful woman offering an apple - only to transform into a Wicked Witch.
    • "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard" has one as The Dragon to the evil prince in the game. She doesn't appear to have any magic of her own - but she's got plenty of sharp nails and cackling to make up for it.
    • "The Tale of Watcher's Woods" features a trio of Wicked Witches haunting the titular woods. It turns out they were three little girls who got lost in the woods while camping.
    • "The Tale of the Unfinished Painting" has a witch as an artist who traps people in paintings - and then displays them in a gallery as her own work.
    • "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror" has a Vain Sorceress trying to preserve her youth and beauty by turning young girls into dogs (and presumably killing them).
    • "The Tale of Many Faces" again has a Vain Sorceress enslaving young women and stealing their faces, rather like Mombi from Return to Oz.
  • Amy's mom in an early Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "The Witch" may not physically resemble the classic witch archetype, but she was certainly wicked (bodyswapping with Amy to relive her youth). Later seasons proved that Amy was also leaning toward the wicked side. Then there's Willow at the end of Season Six...
  • Deconstructed, with a vengeance, on an episode of Bewitched, "The Witches Are Out"note . Near Halloween, a candy magnate wants his product's mascot to be this. Since it's the '60s and all, Samantha, her friends and relatives stage a protest march, complete with picket signs, "Witches Are People Too", etc. (Aunt Clara's reads "Vote for Coolidge"). After terrorizing him by (among other things) making him look like that, the magnate capitulates, discovering later that since most Halloween candy is bought by fathers, a pretty witch is more appealing. Truth in Television if you are a Wiccan devotee: letters to this effect turn up in newspapers and on blogs every year.
  • Subverted and lampshaded in the Charmed episode "All Halliwell's Eve", when Prue, Piper, and Phoebe prepare for a Halloween party dressed as a nature witch, Glinda, and Elvira respectively, and Phoebe comments on Prue's costume;
    Phoebe: Hook-nosed hags riding broomsticks - that's what we're celebrating. Personally I am offended by the representation of witches in popular culture.
    Prue: Which is why you're dressed as mistress of the dark?
    Phoebe: This costume happens to be a protest statement.
    Prue: I am so impressed that you can make a protest statement and show cleavage all at the same time.
    • The plotline for that episode involves the Halliwell sisters being sent to 17th century Virginia to protect one of their ancestors. To ward off a mob, Phoebe uses her levitation powers to fly toward them while seemingly riding a broomstick. As she told her sisters, "I'm embracing the cliche."
    • Another couple of episodes feature Wicked Witches. One that features Fairy Tale Motifs has one of these freed from being imprisoned in a magic mirror - and she tries to kill the sisters by using fairy tale items. You guessed it - she dies by getting melted. The other Wicked Witch appears in the sixth season causing trouble for magical creatures - she is indeed seen in a black hat cackling by a cauldron.
    • Paige and Phoebe were both wicked witches in their past lives, though Paige's is referred to as 'The Evil Enchantress' - and is given a Lady of Black Magic portrayal.
  • Dark Winds: Ada is a witch with a lot of the traits, though Navajo like most of the characters. She is rather unattractive, wears a black dress, lives off by herself with her daughter and uses her magic to harm others for her evil comrades, usually by something from them like hair.
  • The fact that old spinster Doña Clotilde presents almost all the characteristics listed above except the obvious magic powers becomes a Running Gag in El Chavo del ocho.
  • Carrionites from Doctor Who are a species of Wicked Witches.
  • Sid and Marty Krofft had a female example in Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf and and a male example in Hoodoo from Lidsville, an evil magician who rides a flying hat. Which is lampshaded in one episode where the two end up meeting through a dating service. It was up to the heroes to break up the relationship.
  • Hexenbiest when they voge in Grimm.
  • Kenan & Kel has an episode where Kenan suspects a new transfer student is actually a witch. She dresses all in black, has a black cat as a pet and makes a lot of homemade food. Chris outlines the ways in which to spot a witch - they apparently scratch themselves a lot, smell like fire and have green tongues. Through coincidence, the girl in question appears to demonstrate all those. Kenan then suspects her of casting a love spell on Kel and a bad luck spell on him. He does indeed get an Imagine Spot where she's dressed in the traditional black hat and cloak.
  • Bandora from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, as well as her American counterpart, Rita Repulsa from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • In the Masters of Horror episode "Dreams in the Witch-House" (based on an H. P. Lovecraft story by the same title), the witch is a decrepit old woman who forces various men to sacrifice children for her spells.
  • Deconstructed on Once Upon a Time:
    • Zelena, the actual literal Wicked Witch of the West, is not only one of the most beautiful female characters in the series, being a Hot Witch, she showcases quite a bit of cleavage throughout the series, despite her emotional fragility. Not only that, but she's also had one of the worst lives of all villains in the series, and a huge Freudian Excuse for her actions. Eventually, after a series of wicked deeds including kidnapping, murder, and rape she, most unexpectedly finds happiness and begins her path towards redemption in her baby daughter Robyn, named after her father Robin Hood, who wasn't her partner, but conceived the girl while Zelena was wearing a cloaking spell pretending to be his wife Marian.
    • Regina can be considered a subversion of this trope too, although she was established from her introductory scene as being very different from that.
    • It's debatable if Cora is a subversion or plays this straight.
    • The Black Fairy seems to be this, except for the looks. Only her backstory episode will tell.
  • Sabrina the Teenage Witch played with this one. One of these (in fact referred to as THE Wicked Witch) lives at the top of the beanstalk where she eats mortals for dinner. She's a Hot Witch now but this dialogue implies it wasn't always so...
    Zelda: It's the Wicked Witch!
    Sabrina: Wicked? But she's so pretty.
    Hilda: Oh! She's had a lot of work done.
    • In "The Crucible" Harvey references the trope when Sabrina is accused of being a witch. He says she can't be one because witches are old and ugly - and melt when you throw water on them (which he does to Sabrina).
    • In another episode, a distant aunt of Sabrina is shown to have all the physical characteristics and wardrobe... except that she turns to be absolutely nice, caring and selfless.
  • There are many instances of wicked witches in Supernatural, including the Wicked Witch of the West and the witch from Hansel and Gretel.
  • Tales of the Tinkerdee: Taminella Grinderfall is a fatter example than most, but with her dark clothing, dingy lair, magical cauldron, spellcasting skill, lack of any kind of real scruples, and the monstrous company she keeps, she definitely fits the trope!
  • In The Worst Witch TV series Halloween Episode, Miss Hardbroom speaks against this trope. Mildred wears a Halloween mask meant to evoke this stereotype and gets scolded. Mildred runs into a trio of true Wicked Witches later on but they're normal women who just look a little rough from living in the forest. Miss Hardbroom mocks the trope even more "I suppose they had long warty noses and green skin".
    • In the series finale, the girls accidentally wake up the Wicked Witch from Sleeping Beauty - and she curses everyone to fall into the same eternal sleep.
    • The Off-Witch school inspector Mistress Broomhead is quite close to this as well. She tries her best to close the school down...until Miss Cackle discovers that she's an old school classmate - who's been wicked since childhood. She apparently turned all her teachers into snakes and tried to encase the school in a block of ice.
    • Most stereotypes are subverted by the evil Harriet Hogweed - which is why she is able to pass for the good witch Lucy Fairweather.

    Music 
  • Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition has an orchestral piece based on Baba Yaga. His other most famous work Night on Bald Mountain is about a witches' sabbath.
  • La Canción de las Brujas ("The Song of the Witches") by the Mexican composer of songs for children, Cri-Cri; it tells how the witches fly at midnight searching for naughty boys to punish them.
  • The Vladimir Vysotsky song "Two Fates" sees the narrator, a hard-drinking oarsman, being harassed by two of these. The first, the Heavy One, appears out of nowhere to steal the man away from his boat as punishment for his carelessness in rowing without oars, and it's implied she means to have him killed; the second witch, the Crooked One, at first appears to want to help the oarsman, but when he gives the witches his mead, the two greedily drink it, allowing him to escape and leaving the two women upset that he got away.

    Pinball 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • AAA and later LLF and LLU ruda La Bruja. After Malena Hernández was unmasked she got a golden masked successor.
  • Rossy Moreno, Miss Janeth and Tiffany made rounds in as a Brujas for hire trio, having appeared in AULL, NWA Mexico, AAA and PROLLM, among others.

    Tabletop Games 
  • BattleTech of all franchises has a mysterious figure known as the "Callandra Witch": an old woman wearing a necklace of human and animal bones. First sighted on Babylon by Clan Sea Fox, she waved a wand at a Star of mechs, vanished in a sudden dust storm, and had her place taken by an entire lance of mechs - one of which was wearing the same kind of bone necklace. The story of the Callandra Witch is regarded by many people in-universe as a mere legend, even though sightings of her have been reported by Clanners for centuries.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The "Hag" monster type is a range of evil, magic-using, Always Female cannibalistic Mage Species that resembles hideous old women.
    • Nentir Vale: Heroes of the Feywild introduces a Witch class. While they can be as good or evil as any class, they were the first true magic users, and the gods still have a vendetta against them. As such they tend to be viewed as this trope and act in secret.
  • Godforsaken: Hags are evil magical creatures distantly related to the fey. They resemble withered ancient humans with obvious inhuman features — dead eyes, green or purple skin, metal teeth, webbed fingers, and seaweed-like hair are common traits. They love corrupting pure and innocent things, and feast on the dreams and flesh of their victims.
  • Magic: The Gathering: The witches of Eldraine are human mages who have chosen to live in the Wilds beyond the edge of civilization, and have become so removed from their humanity and so steeped in sorcery and the cruel logic of their home that they might as well be part of The Fair Folk themselves. They are modeled primarily after the capricious and antagonistic crones of fairytales, and delight in cruel deeds such as baking children into pies, bewitching and enslaving knights, and cursing people into animal shapes that symbolize their personal faults and failures.
  • Pathfinder:
    • The Witch class can be this sort of witch, if they want. They are not bound to do it, but all the child-smelling, cauldron-bubbling goodness is there in their basic class features.
    • Played with in the Kingmaker adventure path, where the characters will meet an old woman with a long pointy nose, weedy hair, green skin, and magical power who lives alone in a swamp with her giant flaming scarecrow. She's actually a sorceress who is cranky because she's tired of people assuming she's an evil witch and mostly just wants to be left alone.
    • The entire country of Irrisen. Imagine if Baba Yaga took over Russia with an army of Trolls, Frost Giants, icy Fairies and Giant Wolves, then left her daughters in charge.
  • Witch Girls Adventures: There's a condition called Hag's Syndrome that makes the setting's Hot Witches and Cute Witches look as close to the part as they can — when their powers first manifest, their skin and hair turn green and their eyes red — and, in a Shout-Out to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, water melts their skin. Actually a subversion, as a witch that has this isn't necessarily wicked — their spells are more powerful than other witches, but it's entirely possible for a good witch to have the condition.

    Theater 
  • Mother Hare in The Golden Apple, though her magic mostly runs along the lines of crystal balls and potions, and she isn't ever called a witch (though at one point, another character mockingly tells her, "Go home and ride your broomstick!"). She's an Affably Evil old clairvoyant who avows that Good Is Dumb and creates the titular Apple of Discord.
  • The Witch in Into the Woods (who is either explicitly depicted or implied to have been every unnamed evil witch in fairy tales) is a subversion of sorts: her evil deeds happened in the backstory and during the story itself she does more to help the protagonists than hinder them. They blame her nevertheless.
  • Old Madge from La Sylphide. She's initially sympathetic, seeking shelter at a wedding party in exchange for telling everyone's fortunes- but she gets thrown out by the protagonist James for saying his bride Effie will marry his best friend Gurn and not him. (He's also worried about her exposing the fact he's being pursued by the titular sylph.) Old Madge gets her revenge by creating a poisoned scarf and tricking James into wrapping it around the sylph, claiming it will make her his forever when in actuality it kills her.

    Toys 
  • LEGO has featured a few, starting with the witch in the Fright Knights theme, one in the Castle Fantasy Era, and one in the LEGO Minifigures theme.
    • LEGO will also make a minifigure of the Wicked Witch of the West for LEGO Dimensions.
  • Playmobil has featured several witches as well. Most of them have a hairstyle that combines the stringy hair and bun styles, and a hooked-nose-and-glasses piece has been used on most of them. The witches in the "Fi?ures" theme encompass the classic traits, because the first has the nose, stringy hair and sickly skin, while the second has the warts and the messy hair with bun.

    Video Games 
  • Barbara Jagger of Alan Wake has slight shades of this, especially in her portrayals by the game's Heavy Mithril band. Of course her true nature is a bit more complex.
  • All witches in Aveyond. Except once where two feuding witches repeatedly curse each other and one "curses" the other with unending beauty. She's still quite evil, though.
  • Gruntilda, the Big Bad of the Banjo-Kazooie series. She's a dead ringer appearance wise for the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, and her evil plans in the first game involve enhancing or restoring her beauty at others' (mainly Tooty's) expense. In the sequels, she seeks revenge on the title duo for defeating her and rescuing Tooty.
  • Partially monkeywrenched in newer Castlevania games. Some of the most annoying generic enemies are witches, but they're all rather attractive and young looking. They still dress the part though, and fly around on brooms. Subverted entirely by the Belnades family, a clan of witches who have assisted the Belmont clan in destroying Dracula many times.
    • The closest example to a Wicked Witch in the series is Actrise from Castlevania 64, and she retains her youthful beauty. She had to slaughter her children in exchange for it...
    • Circle of the Moon plays this straight as opposed to the cute/hot witches in later games.
    • And then played completely straight with Baba Yaga herself, in Lords of Shadow. Sure, she's helping you, but she quite clearly put Gabriel in a Death Trap music box for her own amusement, and is responsible for driving Malphas to insanity. She would have become young and presumably beautiful (the Death Trap contained a blue rose she needed for a youth potion), had Zobek not killed her offscreen (when he realized she was working for Satan).
  • Darkest Dungeon: The Hag boss comes complete with a boiling cauldron and humanitarian tendencies. They're the one responsible for filling the Weald with Festering Fungus and zombies, having been a former botanist who worked with the Ancestor. Unusually for this trope, she lacks much in the ways of proper magic, which many of her disciples, among others, can clearly use. Rather, she relies more on trying to have the heroes Stewed Alive in her pot.
  • Dishonored has Granny Rags, an old crone given the Mark of The Outsider who occasionally requests Corvo to help her with nefarious rituals.
  • A pivotal character in the Dragon Age series is a shapeshifter called Flemeth who first appears as a wrinkled crone living in a cottage (in a swamp) with her daughter. The Chasind call her Witch of the Wilds and tell their children she'll eat them if they don't behave ("Bah! As if I had nothing better to do!"). She's extremely powerful, near-immortal, fond of the odd Evil Laugh, and no-one seems to have a clear idea what she is or what she's after. Oh, and she'll go Maleficent on you and turn into a DRAGON if you mess with her.
  • The The Elder Scrolls series has witches of all types, but Hagravens fit the trope best. Hagravens are a species of flightless harpy who were once mortal women that performed a ritual (involving Human Sacrifice) that traded their humanity for access to powerful magic. Hagravens prefer deadly fire-based magic attacks and can typically be found in remote areas leading either Reachmen clans (as Evil Matriarchs) or covens of still-mortal witches (who ultimately plan to become Hagravens).
  • Everybody Edits has a the witch smiley, obtained from magic coins.
  • GNARLED HAG: The titular Hag evokes the classic image of a wicked witch — complete with hat, implied, a decaying, unkempt house in which she resides, as well as a penchant for imprisoning trespassing children and turning them into slugs — but with a horror twist that makes her seem more of a Humanoid Abomination as well. Namely, her horribly distorted, almost mask-like face with loose skin that dangles from her jaw, the ability to phase through the floor with a hearty dose of Body Horror, and a full-blown One-Winged Angel transformation when sufficiently angered.
  • Many of the King's Quest games featured evil witches. Hagatha in King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, Lolotte in King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, and Malicia in King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride were their respective games' main antagonists. Unnamed witches caused lesser mischief in King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown and King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!.
  • The Big Bad of Kirby: Canvas Curse, Drawcia, is a sorceress who wants to transform Dream Land into a world made of paint. When defeated, she transforms into a screaming paint ball and was eventually killed off. Not to mention she was born from a painting herself.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Minecraft added witches as a second ranged hostile mob in the Pretty Scary Update (version 1.4). They attack by throwing negative status effect splash potions (slowness, poison, damage, and weakness) at the player and use positive status effect potions (healing, fire resistance, and swiftness) to heal/protect themselves.
  • Monster Hunter (PC) has witch mooks as recurring enemies, labelled "Evil Witch" in their introduction scene. They attack by casting spells which can transform the player into frogs.
  • The main villain of Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness is Mesmerelda, an ugly, green-skinned hag with magical powers who has set up base in a creepy, Halloween-themed castle.
  • Ravel Puzzlewell from Planescape: Torment is a night hag who attempted to rip apart the main city Sigil, and who is responsible for your condition of immortality. You spend half of the game looking for her.
  • Baba Yaga in Quest for Glory I and IV.
  • In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, while Alex Wesker's power comes from science rather than magic, her characterization seems heavily rooted in classic witch iconography, between her hag-like appearance post-mutation (especially when she's wearing her cloak) and her obsession over kidnapping a little girl and her little bear, too.
  • Witches appear as enemies in Episode 1 of Scooby-Doo! First Frights.
  • These characters are possible in The Sims, either by creating one outright, or having a good or neutral witch/wizard study or use The Dark Arts. (Which, in the Sims, are limited to things like sending bees after other Sims.)
    • On the other hand, The Sims Medieval gives you a quest to deal with one of these who actually threatens the kingdom. (You could also, possibly, make your own kingdom's Wizard into one, as there are clothing and hat options that look like a witch's gear and the traits Cruel and Evil are available. You couldn't make her green though, just very pale.)
  • Sabāsa, The Pumpkin Zone boss in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
  • Witchcart, the Big Bad of Tails' Skypatrol has the stock appearance of one, as she wears black clothes and a pointy hat and has a long nose. She rides a mine cart instead of a broomstick and doesn't own a cat, but still uses magic in her schemes and during the final battle.
  • Mima from Touhou Project fits this trope. In fact, she's so old that she's a ghost. Her disciple Marisa is a Cute Witch, though.
    • Shinki also fits, even though she's closer to being a Physical God. Her daughter(?) Alice is half this and half Cute Witch, since Alice is not a human (anymore).
    • When Patchouli is not a Cute Witch, she's a Wicked Witch who traffic with the Scarlet devil.
    • It's strongly implied that the Wicked Witch image is the reason Byakuren was imprisoned, despite her kindness.

    Web Animation 
  • The Black Cat's Lair: Mary was a hated witch. Subverted when it is revealed that it is the king that was responsible for making everybody hate her despite the fact that she was a kind witch.
  • Dreamscape: Melinda is The Dreaded, lived in a dark castle before being sealed away, and uses Black Magic. All she is missing is the green warty skin.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • In None Too Holy, everyone assumes that a legendary witch named "Ol' Lottie" is the one who murdered Father Collins, prompting Hardestadt to investigate her. Subverted later on when it turns out that "Ol' Lottie" is just a benevolent witch named Charlotte who never harmed anyone.

    Western Animation 
  • On Adventure Time, the episode "The Witch's Garden" had a witch who had haggish features, green skin, and a back so bent over she is in the shape of an arch. She uses her walking stick for magic, and curses Jake for eating one of the donuts in her garden.
  • The witch from the eponymous Alfred J. Kwak episode "The Witch" is teleported from her appearance in Hansel and Gretel. She's basically a checklist of the typical portrayal: fat, ancient, monstrous appearance, tattered clothes, eats children, cackles and flies around on a broom (although she has bat wings...) She also tries to force Alfred to marry her.
  • The Halloween Episode of As Told by Ginger, "I Spy A Witch", has Miranda and Mipsy causing a Halloween prank by defacing a statue outside the school - dressing it up like a wicked witch. The two then frame Ginger for it, resulting in her being suspended, so the former can get the lead in the Halloween play - which coincidentally is a Salem Witch Trials story. Once the Foutleys discover the truth, thanks to a photo courtesy of Carl's late best friend, Maude, whom he brought Back from the Dead to try to scare Lois, only to give her the photo, Ginger sneaks onstage and she and the rest of the cast out Miranda as the culprit while they're performing the scene where her character is accused of witchcraft. It is implied at the end of the episode Ginger's suspension was reversed and Miranda and Mipsy rightfully received the punishment.
  • Hama from Avatar: The Last Airbender; she was a normal Waterbender until she was captured and imprisoned by the Fire Nation, where she developed a twisted version of the ability called Bloodbending. Hama uses this power to torture innocent Fire Nation citizens via People Puppets, and she is only stopped when Katara turns her power against her... which is exactly what Hama wanted to happen.
  • Wendy's Aunts in Casper the Friendly Ghost, as she's basically a witch counterpart of Casper and therefore the only known friendly witch.
  • A Wicked Witch called Witch Hazel appeared in the Classic Disney Short Trick or Treat where she helps Huey, Dewey, and Louie get candy from Donald Duck. She later appeared in a variety of Disney Comics.
    • To be more specific, in Trick or Treat, Witch Hazel styles herself as the classic Halloween Witch, and while going out for a joyride stirring up trouble and frights, she witnesses Donald's cruel trick on his nephews, which moves her "black heart" into offering her assistance to the boys. First, she attempts to speak diplomatically to Donald, but, after he yanks on her nose and douses her with a bucket of water, she finds the "quacking rogue" so offensive that she has Huey, Dewey, and Louie help her concoct a potent potion to jinx Donald with.
  • The Wicked Witch (usually going by the name "Wicked") in Cyberchase.
  • Wilhelmina from Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, daughter of the Wicked Witch of the East and niece of the Wicked Witch of the West, is somewhat of a cross between this and Cute Witch; personality-wise she's this trope and is the primary antagonist of much of the show, while her age and the show's art style cause her to lean toward the latter in the looks department.
  • Mrs. Crone in Gravedale High, she looks like the Wicked Witch of the West in modern clothes, although her wickedness is relative due to the Blue-and-Orange Morality of all the monster characters.
  • The cackling crone GeeleHeks (The Yellow Witch) in children's show Die Liewe Heksie.
  • A different much closer to form (and to dietary habits) Witch Hazel appears in a number of Looney Tunes shorts, starting with Bewitched Bunny.
  • The little-known cartoon, The New Misadventures of Ichabod Crane featured a witch named Velma Van Damme, who was apparently responsible for the headless horseman that terrorized the folks of Sleepy Hollow.
  • The Owl House:
    • Terra Snapdragon is an elderly female magic user who brews dubious concoctions, wields formidable and vicious magic, wears a thinly-veiled facade over her cruel disposition, and she frequently stays isolated from the rest of the Isles, preferring her personal greenhouse. Later episodes added into this with "Them's the Breaks, Kid" showing she takes a sadistic glee in the pain of children, and "King's Tide" gave her a creepy cackle to round it out.
    • Hilariously enough, Philip Wittebane/Emperor Belos actually has a lot more in common with the 17th-century definition of a Witch than the residents of the Boiling Isles do despite Belos himself being a puritanical Witch Hunter, whose goal is the genocide of all Witches. He's an elderly outcast who cut a deal with a powerful entity in exchange for powerful magic he fuels by devouring the flesh of innocents (The Collector and the Palismen) and hides his hideous true from behind a kindly mask he uses to manipulate the righteous into his clutches. "Hollow Mind" makes the parallel even more obvious, having him disguise himself as a seemingly helpful and innocent creature to deceive two children into following him into an extremely foreboding forest (the depths of his mindscape) until they're far away from rescue and he reveals his true evil nature while cackling madly.
      • Furthermore, "Watching and Dreaming" has Belos make allusions to two of the most famous evil witches in popular culture. First, he has a One-Winged Angel transformation into a giant dragon for the final battle, akin to Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty, complete with a hammy announcement to go with it. Second, his death scene has him melting from rain caused by Luz, similar to how the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz was famously weak against water.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (2016) episode "Witch's Crew", one of three Halloween Episodes in the series, had the girls become wicked witches, thanks to Princess Morbucks trying to create a potion that'll make her more beautiful and powerful than the girls, only for it to backfire and spill, causing not only their transformation, but also turning Morbucks into a real ogre and a trick-or-treating Mojo Jojo into a real cat. With the girls becoming villains temporarily, Mojo and Morbucks end up playing the roles of unwilling protagonists as they find a way to reverse the spell.
  • The witch in The Real Ghostbusters episode "If I Were a Witch Man" uses all the traditional tropes associated with evil witches, and even have a legion of flying monkeys (well, she calls them goblins). It turns out to be actually the ghost of an old witch defeated by Egon's ancestor possessing modern humans.
  • Angelica appears as one in the Rugrats episode "Ghost Story" — complete with pointed hat, broomstick, and cackling.
    • The trope appears again in their Affectionate Parody of The Wizard of Oz. Three guesses which character Angelica plays.
    • Kimi dresses as one for the show's second Halloween Episode - and thoroughly terrifies Chuckie with her cackling.
  • Hedwig the Big Bad of Saban's Adventures of the Little Mermaid is crone meets mermaid. As the Big Bad of the series loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's short story, she is an evil sea witch with purple skin, white hair, and is extremely ugly.
  • The Witch Sisters from Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf.
  • Shadow Weaver from She-Ra: Princess of Power (moreover, we never see her face...)
  • Marge and her sisters appear as Wicked Witches in The Simpsons in the "Easy-Bake Coven" segment of "Treehouse of Horror VIII".
    • The winner of the costume contest in "Treehouse of Horror XVI" is a hideous witch. She is disqualified for not wearing a costume as she is a real witch. Angered, she turns everyone into their costumes.
    • The Wicked Witch from Hansel and Gretel appears in another "Treehouse of Horror" episode.
  • The Smurfs had a few:
    • Hogatha, a short, dumpy hag who's bald (but wears a wig), snorts when she talks (which is how she got her name, apparently), rides a vulture, and can cast evil spells. Most of her schemes either involve trying to find ways to make herself beautiful or force handsome princes to marry her (and naturally, the smurfs always get caught in the middle of these plans).
    • Far worse than Hogatha was Chlorhydris, who was so full of hate that she wanted to make the entire world feel the same way, eradicating everyone's ability to feel happiness and love. While such goals are not uncommon for villains in a series like this, Chlorhydris did some downright sadistic things in pursuit of it, like kidnapping the wood elf Laconia and using her wand to kill the flowering plants in the forest - not caring in the least that doing so was causing Laconia to die an agonizingly slow death as she felt their pain. (Unlike most villains in the series, Chlorhydris was given a backstory; apparently, she was once in love with a wizard who left her at the altar, and apparently, the heartbreak not only caused her to fit this Trope well, it was enough for her to want to deny all of creation what she had once had.)
    • Brenda, the title character from "The Littlest Witch" is supposed to be one in training. Fortunately, she averts this trope when she learns to be good, and to use her powers to do good things. Her teacher, on the other hand, is just as wicked as all the others.
  • The Old Witch once again returns in Tales from the Cryptkeeper.
  • Mother Mae-Eye from the Teen Titans episode of the same name was sort of a supervillain version of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. She initially appeared as a grandmotherly old woman, but her true form was a hideous old hag with warty, green skin and three eyes. She was able to brainwash the Titans into thinking she was their mother using the magical - and addictive - pies she made, all the while planning to turn them into one, and when found out, was able to grow to giant size and use them as weapons.
  • ToonMarty has Grizelda.

    Real Life 
  • The Vampire of Barcelona, Enriqueta Marti, who not only kidnapped and prostituted street children for the city's wealthy pedophiles but also killed the younger children and processed their blood, bones, and fat to make love potions and cures for tuberculosis and various venereal diseases for the same wealthy residents of Barcelona in pre-WWI Spain.
  • Leonarda Cianciulli, who killed three women, turned their body fat into soap (in one case giving it to her neighbours) and used their blood as an ingredient for cakes, which were eaten by her friends, her son, and herself. Not only was she a firm believer in divination and magic, but she admitted her victims were human sacrifices offered for the protection of her son.
  • Tamara Samsonova, the "Granny Ripper," who murdered at least 11 victims, allegedly including her own husband. She not only cooked and ate body parts, but was a practitioner of black magic and astrology, even tearing out pages from her spell books and including them with some of the bodies. In her own country, she is often called "Baba Yaga" in reference to the fairytale character.
  • Carolanne Smith, the "She Svengali" of Tulsa's "Hex House". In addition to being a career criminal, Smith kept two women imprisoned in her basement who, despite being let out every day on their own to go to work (having to give whatever they earned to Smith) never once tried to escape, leading some to suspect they were hypnotized or under some sort of spell. Smith would also often have strange burials at night around her house. When her home was raided by police, they found a number of books on witchcraft and ritual magic, as well as journal entries confirming her belief in her power to control others. However, she was only given a year in prison for her crimes.


In Salem, you hunt witch. In Soviet Russia, witch hunts YOU!

 
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The Trix

Icy, Stormy, and Darcy, also known together as the Trix, are a trio of evil witches who actively antagonize the Winx in their quest to take over the Magic Dimension.

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